Is this tiling acceptable?

Dominic

Nothing wrong with it .......possibly a 1 or 2mm drop on the right side but the wall may be slightly out.
A lot of these Metro tiles are very cheaply produced and are non-rectified meaning they can be up to 2 or 3mm difference from one to another in the casting.......nothing a tiler can do about it.It only needs a poor one in the mix and it will "pig" the whole line.
 This work is easily within acceptable tolerance.I am a specialist Construction Surveyor.

CarpeDiem

It's interesting all of the comments regarding tolerance differences in materials. Having said that, I wouldn't be happy with tiling that doesn't line up.

Octafish

at those who say it looks ok or can't see what's wrong with it! It would be ok for a rushed DIY job I guess, but it's pretty crappy if a 'professional' did it. Regardless if the walls were peferctly flat or not (if they were too on the piss a decent tiler would want them skimmed flat) the horizontal lines should match up and they don't in the pics. Looks like someone didn;t know what they were doing or ruhed/bodged it.

I say all this as someone who used to do tiling professionally and would not have been happy to charge a customer for work of a standard in the pics. Mind you maybe that's why I didn't make as much money as cowboy geezer builder types.

Octafish

Neill said:

Sambostar said:

Not really, I would have done it myself.  In fairness though it's probably the poor tolerances of the tiles, which are designed to be in a running bond is probably way out, which makes it near impossible to achieve perfectly parallel runs.  I was doing some laminate flooring the other day, parquet style, laid in running bond.  Some of the boards were 1.5mm wider than the rest, meaning I had to sort the lot out by hand first or have 1.5mm gaps in places.  Fine if I'm doing it, but far more cash if someone else is.  I blame the materials.  Especially over priced cheap shite from Hardware stores.  I did a herringbone slate paved patio years ago.  I learnt my lesson then.  Ended up hand cutting most of the inch and a half thick pavers to fit.  Materials are shite and experience often means you have to rely on your eye.

This, plus the state of the walls. It's not the tiler's fault if the wall isn't perfectly flat and plumb which it probably isn't. 

Our house was built in the late 1700's, the great thing about that is that there isn't a flat surface, or a horizontal or vertical line, or a 90 degree angle anywhere and you get used to this sort of thing.  But even in our last house which was 1960's none of the tiling lined up perfectly. 

A decent capable tiler would identify if the wall is not flat enough to do the job and insist on thenm being skimmed. Of course there is the possibilty that the customer may say "nah don't worry, just stick them up the best you can"!

hywelg

I wouldn't accept that even if I'd done it myself. I'm no tiler but a pro should know that if there's even a chance of the tiles being variable, don't finish in a corner where the whole lot needs to line up, finish up to a door frame or summat. 

Oh and this has nothing to do with walls being square or needing skimming. This is the tiler not getting his levels right. A pro would have a laser level FFS, they are only a few quid nowadays. Cowboy job IMO .

shaunyshaun1234

Just stick some corner trim up the wall!! Problem solved! 

rawk100

It seems to start going out if line halfway up the wall.This was done by a professional who I've paid to do the job. The walls were replastered prior to the job. The bath is brand new along with the rest of the suite. The tiles are from Topps Tiles.

boogieman

You’ll rarely get walls that are completely square and even, so it’s inevitable that (unless the walls were skimmed first) you’ll get one corner where the grout lines don’t quite match. Normally a decent tiler would lose the mismatch in the least obvious place... and this might be that corner. Are they all like this or is it just the one?

I agree with other comments, it’s the high contrast between grout and tiles that makes it look worse. 

ICBM

NeilMcG said:

The work doesn't look bad, but that slight wonkyness is jarring with that high contrast.

The spacing looks even, so It's hard to see how it could be made better without carefully selecting the tiles to get each run the same height either side of the corner. Is that really practical?

They should have made the horizontal lines match either side of the join and allowed the spacing to be very slightly different if the tiles weren't all exactly the same size. The difference in the width of the grouting wouldn't be noticeable.

Octafish

rawk100 said:

It seems to start going out if line halfway up the wall.This was done by a professional who I've paid to do the job. The walls were replastered prior to the job. The bath is brand new along with the rest of the suite. The tiles are from Topps Tiles.

In that case it's pretty poor. I know some are saying that tiles can be out by 2-3mm (never came across ones out by more than 0.5mm myself other than with small handmade Fired Earth type tiles), but the tiler should still have identified this and cut and/or mixed up or left out some of the most out of size tiles. However, in the photo the out of line tiles on the left don't appear to be noticably shorter than the ones on the left. Would be interesting to see a pic of the bottom couple rows of tiles.

viz

Octafish said:

rawk100 said:

It seems to start going out if line halfway up the wall.This was done by a professional who I've paid to do the job. The walls were replastered prior to the job. The bath is brand new along with the rest of the suite. The tiles are from Topps Tiles.

In that case it's pretty poor. I know some are saying that tiles can be out by 2-3mm (never came across ones out by more than 0.5mm myself other than with small handmade Fired Earth type tiles), but the tiler should still have identified this and cut and/or mixed up or left out some of the most out of size tiles. However, in the photo the out of line tiles on the left don't appear to be noticably shorter than the ones on the left. Would be interesting to see a pic of the bottom couple rows of tiles.

Exactly, the right hand side is lower than the left, all the way from the top tile to the bottom tile. 

Modulus_Amps

That looks really crap, did he start tiling at the other end end this is where it met up? besides not lining up the horizontal lines, which in this case are the only lines that actually matter, there is also no symmetry around the corner that adds to the unbalance. I would let him know you are really not happy with the work and see what he suggests. it is a nightmare job to have to redo.
Are all four walls fully tiled and this is the only part you are not happy with?

rawk100

The bath is in the corner of the room and the tiling is only around the bath (along the length of the bath and across the back). The bottom few runs line up but it starts going out of line about halfway up the corner. I guess hes just strictly followed the spacers and didnt manually adjusted where necessary.

BloodEagle

Honestly I wouldnt give a shit

57Deluxe

surely you work from the corners out so that the cut tiles are at the door/shower outer frame??

Being In the same plane would be a start though...

Is amazing how heavy grout can disguise bad tiling too...

How is the reverb quality though?? 

JezWynd

Close enough for Rock & Roll.

DefaultM

How often do you look at the corner where tiles meet when you're in the bath? I'm too busy fondling my balls.

ronnyb

Whether the tiles were level or not if I was doing it i would probably finish the corners with a bead of silicone. It may improve the look of it a bit.  

Rocker

If that corner is the first thing you see when entering the bathroom, definitely not good enough. I would expect the "full" tiles to start from there and the cut tiles be around the wall the door is in. For a start.

Strangefan

BRISTOL86 said:

Depends who did it. If it was Willy Wonka then it’s reasonable but otherwise I wouldn’t be that happy. 

Don't you mean willy wonky